GUIDELINES: EXAMINATION PREPARATION & TECHNIQUES ...

GUIDELINES: EXAMINATION PREPARATION & TECHNIQUES
LANGUAGE EXAMS
To perform well in your language exam, it is essential that you learn, practice and use the language
on a regular basis throughout the year. Regular practice is the only way to learn a language, so try
learning little and often. It is simply not possible to cram it all in before the exam. In addition to
regular attendance in language classes and thorough preparation and revision, you should try and
establish some good language learning habits early on in the year.
• Use the language as often as possible, e.g. by watching the news or a film in the foreign
language, reading books or magazines, emailing or chatting to a friend in the foreign
language.
• Combine this with more focused learning, such as vocabulary learning, grammar revision and
memorising new forms and structures.
• Maximise your time. Carry cards and lists around with you so that you can learn on the bus
or while waiting for a friend.
• Get your coloured pens out! It can help learning if you mark, underline or write forms in
different colours, e.g. using red for feminine and blue for masculine nouns.
• Talk about what you have learned. Explaining a difficult grammar point to a friend will make
it much clearer to you as well. Or try tutoring a GCSE‐ or A‐level student!
Exam preparation
• Go through your notes, handouts or textbooks and write lists of what you have covered.
a) Topics/themes: Write down a list of topic‐related vocabulary by classifying it (ie verbs,
nouns, adj.). Revise it and test yourself / work with another student for mutual testing .
b) Grammar points: Make sure you understand how to use a new structure by doing some
exercises, referring to your lists, grammar books and dictionaries. Use the keys to check
whether you got it right. If not, read through the explanations in different grammar
books again or ask a friend for help. If you got most things right, this means that you
understand when and how to use a new structure. Now make sure you know all the
forms and structures by heart.
• Read through some old exam papers. Did you cover the same points in class? If not, what
could your exam look like, based on what you did in class?
• Use old exam papers for practice! Try and work under exam conditions, i.e. find a quiet place
and work for the given time without interruption. Then go through your answers in your
own time, correct your mistakes and make a list of points to revise. Old exam papers are
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kept in the Short Loan section in the Sydney Jones library and/or in the SOCLAS Library
(Portuguese Class tests).
• Do try and get a good nights’ sleep before the exam. Have a good breakfast/lunch and arrive
at the examination venue in good time.
Exam technique (written exams)
Read the questions and instructions carefully and estimate the time you need for each question. Use
the weighting of each question as a guide, if possible. Stick to the time you set yourself for each task,
and come back to a question if you find you have time in the end.
1. Reading comprehension:
• Read the text quickly to see what it is about. Don’t go into detail at this stage, and don’t
spend much time on difficult parts.
• Don’t panic if you feel you don’t understand much. Difficult texts can come with very easy
questions and easy texts can come with more searching ones!
• Read the questions and answer them reading the relevant parts of the text as closely as
necessary. Don’t spend too much time on parts of the text which are not relevant to your
answers.
2. Writing:
• Read the question very carefully.
• Make a short plan of what you are going to write and make sure it is relevant to the
question. It helps if you consider at this stage what you are able to write about in terms of
vocabulary, grammatical structures etc., as long as you answer the question.
• Write your answer. Has your answer taken into account the full title?
• Leave sufficient time to check your work. Go over your text at least two times, checking for
different mistakes each time. For example, if you tend to make mistakes with verb endings,
tenses etc., check these first, then move on to declension of nouns and adjectives, or
sentence structure etc.
3. Grammar:
• Think of what you have learned in class about each grammar question.
• Answer the questions.
• If an answer doesn’t take much time, such as gaps, don’t leave them blank, even if you don’t
know. You may just be lucky!
4. Listening:
• If you know the topic or title of the text, think of what you know about the topic, what you
expect from the text and which vocabulary may come up.
• If you have time, read the questions first. This will focus your listening.
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• Make sure you know how often you are going to listen to the text.
• If you can listen to a text more than once, use the first listening to answer the questions and
the second one to check your answers and tackle missed questions.
• Don’t panic! Focus on the things you DO understand.
Oral exams:
• To prepare for an oral exam, talk to yourself and have some practice runs with a friend. This
will prepare you for the kind of question you may be asked.
• Learn some useful phrases in advance, such as ‘Can you please repeat the question?’, ‘I
don’t understand the question’, ‘I don’t understand this part of the text’ etc.
• Prepare some holding expressions, such as ‘Well, let me see’, or ‘in my opinion…’, to give
you time to formulate your thoughts during the exam.
• If you receive a question paper or a topic in advance, prepare thoroughly.
• If you are allowed to bring notes with you, never write full sentences, but note down bullet
points and, if allowed, useful structures and difficult vocabulary only. Examiners are
assessing a spontaneous use of the language, so reading out would not get you marks. You
need to be prepared for a degree of variation or unpredictability, according to the level of
competence you are expected to have reached.
• If you get a fixed preparation time, make sure that you think about all the questions you are
going to address. Don’t spend all your time on the first one.
• The first minute or so is often used for greetings and to make you feel comfortable. Relax
and smile!
• Remember that the oral exam is basically a conversation between you and the examiner. If
you don’t understand a question, please say so. Do not freeze!
• Follow the briefing given by your tutor and note special instructions.
• You are part of a series of appointments – please make sure you arrive in good time.
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